Exploring Cardiff: Rhiwbina

One of the things I said I wanted to do in my maternity bucket list was to explore parts of my city that I wasn’t that familiar with.

I had a few hours away from baby W last week, so had the opportunity to check out the lovely suburb of Rhiwbina….

I’d already been there the week before he was born for a massage and pedicure at Vanity rooms and knew there were some cute shops to look around…

So I started with lunch at the Snails deli – I went for lamb cawl (Welsh broth/soup) and it was delicious. It was a Friday lunchtime and it was jam-packed, I was lucky to get a seat at the window-facing bar so I could watch the world go by.

I loved the décor and atmosphere – rustic, friendly, bustling. I’ll definitely be back!

From there I went a few doors down to a shop called ‘Cwtsh bach’ – a very cute, little gift shop selling a lot of (but not only) Welsh and Welsh language gifts. I saw lovely felt cushions with the words ‘Mamgu’ (Grandmother) and ‘Tadcu’ (Grandfather) on them so I’ve bought those for my parents for Christmas 🙂 (similar style to the ones you can see in the photo) – PS I’ve just realised that they sell most of the stock online if you click on the link above!

 

On the same street (Beulah road) as the deli and Cwtsh bach, is another cute gift and card shop (Ginger White’s) they were selling local jewellery, candles and smellies and a range of other stuff.

I turned the corner onto Heol-y-Deri and went to ‘Nest vintage’ – I had been to this shop before but since then they have moved into larger premises.

 

This is an absolutely gorgeous shop that looks very homely – they have little rooms and snugs everywhere selling everything from Cath Kidston to Orla Kiely to local Welsh goods.

I didn’t buy anything but did get some ideas which I hope to go back for before Christmas. They also had lots of Christmas decorations and it smelt lovely in there as they were burning some Christmas-selling candles…. lush!

 

Opposite they have opened a new shop called ‘Little Nest’ for children’s and baby gifts – lots of pretty wooden toys, felt animal heads and cute baby leggings…. I was running out of time by this point so didn’t get any pics sorry.

I did manage to pop into Victoria Fearn art gallery on the street – and cue more unique gifts and decorations – as well as some lovely art pieces!

 

In addition to all these gorgeous gift shops, Rhiwbina has everything else you need from a wine merchant, yoga studio, barbers, chemist, florist and I think it even had a wedding dress shop!

It also had this very cool but random bench – I would love to know why it’s been decorated in this way!

Seeing as I’m publishing this on ‘Cyber Monday’, I hope it inspires you to Shop local, and support local businesses – you really could do all your Christmas shopping in Rhiwbina – I will be popping back there this month!